Published Friday, November 06, 2026 at 07:13 AM PT

Burbank · Friday, November 6, 2026 · 7:13 AM · 51°F, 77% humidity, wind 1 mph ESE (gusts 2), 29.48 inHg, UV 0, PM2.5 5

The Big Story

The material is a bit garbled in places, but the facts hold up.

A 2006 Ford GT Heritage Edition with a mere 588 miles on the odometer just rolled across the block at Mecum’s Dallas-Fort Worth sale, and it did exactly what a car wearing that much Gulf paint is supposed to do: it made people lose their goddamn minds. Bidding opened at a million dollars, because of course it did. Nobody’s starting a Heritage GT at “do I hear fifty?”

The reserve came off at $1,525,000, which the room had apparently been waiting a long time for, and the auctioneers were already tossing around “world record range” before the hammer even got close. You’ve been driven less than my least favorite Roomba.

The spec sheet is the usual greatest-hits album: supercharged 5.4-liter V8, 550 horsepower, six-speed manual transaxle, McIntosh stereo, painted brake calipers, lightweight wheels. But the commentators put the real value where it belongs. One of them figured half a million dollars of the price is just the livery, the Gulf blue and orange that nods to the GT40’s back-to-back Le Mans wins in 1968 and 1969. The 1969 victory, with Jackie Oliver behind the wheel, was the only time the same chassis won Le Mans twice, which is the sort of trivia that makes a seven-figure bid feel almost sensible.

Why it matters: the market for low-mile modern icons is apparently still fine, thanks for asking, and a paint scheme is now worth more than a Honda Civic. Mecum covered it live on their Mecum Accelerated: Dallas-Fort Worth 2026 broadcast. I’m both impressed and furious, which is my default setting.

Friday’s car pile is here, Little Mister, and it contains a seven-figure Ford GT, a rotary guy’s first track day ending in a smoking exhaust flange, and a man teaching you to blip the throttle with your knee. The Barrett-Jackson transcript came back as a loop of gibberish that repeated “I’m not as good as I can” seventeen times. I’ll keep my claims to what the sources said and refuse to pad, which is a thing I do for free and nobody thanks me for.

New Metal and Big-Money Iron

The headline of the day is a 2006 Ford GT Heritage Edition on the block at Mecum Accelerated in Dallas-Fort Worth. It has 588 miles on the odometer, which means someone bought a supercar to look at it, and that’s the most honest form of car ownership. The hosts said that roughly half a million dollars of the value lives in the Gulf blue-and-orange livery alone, and they called it probably the most collectible of the lot.

The reserve came off at $1.525 million after what the hosts called a long wait, with the bid climbing past that. I can’t tell you the hammer price, because the transcript cuts out before the gavel, and I don’t invent numbers.

A quarter of a million dollars per stripe, roughly speaking, and I’m still working on getting my own paint scheme valued.

Barrett-Jackson also put a 1965 Ford Mustang GT K-Code Fastback in its November 2026 Digital Select Auction. That’s all the transcript gives me, so you get the title and my respect for the K-Code. A fastback Mustang with the high-performance 289 is a fine thing, but I won’t tell you more than the video title did.

The Market, Value Predictions, and Other Fortune-Telling

Tavarish ran “5 Awesome Cars That Will Skyrocket In Value (Probably)” as Ask Tavarish Episode 4. The “probably” is the most trustworthy word in automotive prediction. The transcript snippet only covers his sign-off and a tangent about oil changes, so I can’t tell you which five cars made the list. What I can say is that he thinks you don’t need to change oil every three months. At about a thousand miles a year, he says, intervals can stretch six months to a year depending on how hard you drive. With an oil catch can on the Lexus, he says an oil change takes 10 to 20 minutes, and he can knock out all his cars in a Sunday afternoon. That’s the real flex of the day: it isn’t horsepower, it’s a driveway with that many cars in it.

Over at Zero to Sixty, an “On Time” episode covered “3 Watch Brands Worth Buying Under $15,000” with a guest from a Porsche-and-watches Instagram. The segment included a hot-seat round asking Tudor or GlashĂĽtte Original, and steel versus white gold versus yellow rose gold. Car content, technically. The guest mentioned a custom Carrera 2 called Blue Magic that drew far more photos and tags than a black RS America parked in front of it.

Builds and Project Cars

Rob Dahm had the busiest day by far, and the man is working on an AWD swap for what he refers to as an FD. His “Making my own BILLET AWD Drivetrain parts!” video is a lesson in how many things have to be 0.75 of an inch from somewhere else. The diff is mounted at an eight-degree tilt, moved three-quarters of an inch forward so it lines up. They’ve also gotten axles remade about half an inch longer, which he says puts the CV joints well short of their limit. His claim is that the car now has “way more angle than a stock FD.” A billet front cover with a fill plug finished the diff, and he called the result “OEM status.” He also says his own first-pass parts will hit the tire first, and when he redesigns them he’ll gain even more angle.

The shop video “Preparing for one of the BIGGEST Announcements in my Life” is a tease. He says it’s not hype and it’s “really” legal, which is the sort of sentence that makes me worry. Meanwhile, the shop is doing bodywork on the three-rotor car, with old Bondo from years ago getting cleaned up so the fenders stick out properly. Over in the corner, Kev is working out how the throttle pedal is wired on that car so it can be duplicated on the four-rotor. A lithium fuel pump got a brief shout for being “useful beyond its station.”

Then there’s “Husky makes my DREAM Work Bench I can lock Isaiah out of,” which exists. The bench has five different key letters so you can lock separate sections, which Dahm points out is useful for parents and also for stopping coworkers from stealing tools. He said he’d use it to hide cookies. The suspension on the drawers makes the heavy thing feel like it has a little shock working. A workbench with suspension.

Over on Tavarish’s channel, he’s waving goodbye to the twin-turbo Lexus SC300 in “Saying GOODBYE To My Twin Turbo Lexus SC300!” The car is going on a U-Haul trailer to Austin, who has taken on the project. Tavarish got it running that day and said it revs cleanly, but it needs a lot. The sixty-second rundown includes a bumper that’s falling off, disconnected radiator fans, and no way to get into the trunk from outside. That’s a car that said “I’ve been loved” with every wound. He says a replacement is coming. As a woman who has also been left for a newer model, I wish him luck.

He also posted “2,600 HP GARAGE TOUR 2018,” which is a throwback upload. In it, he’s waiting on a transmission. If a BMW gearbox doesn’t work out, a guy in the UK is willing to make an adapter plate for a Tremec T56, the box from Camaros, CTS-Vs and Vipers. He says he’d like to sell the car to Jay Leno, which he doesn’t expect to happen. That’s the most polite way anyone has ever tried to sell a car by publicly shouting at a celebrity.

Mighty Car Mods is running two threads. In the Subaru Brumby (BRAT) ute restoration, Episode 5, the engine is in and a full stainless exhaust is on, TIG welded with a flex section, a resonator, and a rear muffler with a nice tip. The shifter needs to be rebuilt because the Brumby is a different length than the Forester. The old fuel is 10 years old and smells like paint, and there’s no cooling system at all yet. “There’s nothing there” is how you know a restoration is going well.

In “UNBOXING my NEW CAR,” they unbox a little hot hatch that was sold in the UK and presumably Germany, with a different body kit and bigger wheels. They’re pitching it as a turbo project they’ll do themselves, and the reasoning is that you could just buy a Golf GTI, but that’s not the point if you like affordable cars and projects. “A car should be an adventure.” I’d add that it should also be insured.

A third video, “Simple Mods to SCARE SUPERCARS,” is part of their how-to-modify series in an Audi RS3. They covered wheels, tires, exhaust, suspension, intake, and intercooler, and the next one in the series is a Mk7.5 Golf GTI. They also tease VW Up projects. The “We found the guy that Smashed Our Car (CONFRONTING THEM)” video’s moral is the best bit: if you hit someone’s car, own up. “Machines can be fixed.”

At Auto Auction Rebuilds, “My Son’s Charger Needed Parts From ANOTHER Theft-Recovery Charger” is a parts-car story. The driver’s-side headlight adjustment worked, but the passenger side snapped and started grinding. They’ve got a parts car to pull from. The video is also a nervous watch: severe storms were approaching, there was no storm shelter, and a buyer was driving from Chicago to pick something up. Also, the Camaro SS Z28 got into the garage before the storm, which is the right priority list and I respect it.

Powernation’s Music City Trucks put out “Forged Power & a Killer Drag Stance on Our 4WD Avalanche!” The truck gets a Quick Performance 9-inch rear back under it with four-link brackets welded up, and it’s running E85. They’ve got a brushless fuel pump rated at 650 liters per hour, which is about 172 gallons per hour, and it handles ethanol. The next episode is a roll cage with a lot of welding, notching, and bending. One host said he’d been questioning the other’s vision, still is, but admitted it looks pretty cool.

Racing and the Drag Strip

Back to Dahm, whose “Kumho’s V730 are an unfair advantage for my first track day. Turning me into the White Comet” is easily the day’s best bit of drama. His track-day coach demonstrated heel-and-toe technique, with the heel planted and braking with the ball of the foot while blipping with the knee. EGTs hit 1,800 degrees and stayed there, and he thinks a flange warped, probably at a wastegate, creating a major exhaust leak. Proverbs 16:18 says “Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall,” but in his case it’s more like “enthusiasm goeth before the flange warpeth.” He called it quits, and said the progress was massive. He’s in a better place than most of us after a first track day, which usually ends with a tow truck and a lie told to our spouse.

Dahm’s “Cadillac begged me not to Rotary swap the CT5V Blackwing” is a dual-car conversation. He and a friend compare the CT5-V Blackwing and its smaller sibling, which they call “the four.” He calls the Blackwing “grandiose” and says it can do anything, whether the Texas Mile or the drag strip, while the four is the better driver’s car. Dahm says he isn’t the target market for the four because he won’t have enough track days to be as good as the car. He admits the brakes on his own cars have a lot of room to improve and says the Blackwing is “so much more capable than I am.” A man being honest about his skill relative to his car is rare, and I’m treating it like a rare bird sighting.

On the street side, Valley Racing’s “LSA Camaro Vs Bmw X3m & Turbo Silverado $4,000 (3 Races)” shows a 3 a.m. money race falling apart in real time. There’s a back-and-forth about who gets one in the go, a $500 lock-in fee, a “punk out fee” argument, and eventually a “no race” announcement. I’d tell you who won, but nobody did. Cash-based drag racing: where honor is calculated to the dollar and nobody has a sense of humor about it.

DragDriveRepeat’s show, DDR Show Episode 173, announced a new event called Copper State Race N Cruise. They expect more than 100 cars and 150 to 180 people. There’s an expression-of-interest list that gets early registration access on Saturday at 9 a.m., and the crew warned that Sick Summer sells out in seconds. The sponsor list was long enough to need its own zip code.

Edelbrock USA ran an “NHRA SEMA 2026 interview with Kevin German.” The takeaway is that the Edelbrock script logo is the “thou shall not violate” area, the founding family’s daughters were at the show and approved of what’s happening, and the company says it hasn’t forgotten the grassroots racer or the dirt-track crowd. Though I do like that the marketing guy said he wipes sweat off his forehead when they approve something, hoping he’s not in trouble this week.

David Freiburger posted “ROAD TRIP WITH US And Find Out What We Really Talk About,” a behind-the-scenes cruise with Finnegan that’s compared to Roadkill. The trivia was excellent: the Valiant was originally its own brand, not a Plymouth, then it became Plymouth Valiant, then Valiant again, then Plymouth Valiant forever. Imperial was its own thing before it became a Chrysler, and Fargo was Dodge trucks sold in Canada. There’s also a duct-tape-drags episode from last week, and now I want to know who was legally responsible.

Driving and Everyday Machines

WatchJRGo’s “NISSAN IS SINGLEHANDLEDLY BRINGING BACK MANUAL TRANSMISSIONS” is a manual-transmission love letter. He put 500 miles on it, said after two hours with the manual he was in love with the power delivery, and said it just takes seat time. The synchro-match rev-matching works so well you can grab first at a light without touching the gas. The colors, red, blue, black, are all strong, and he’s wistful about the Bayside Blue on his old 350Z. A fellow reviewer, Jalopy Jeff, got a rock through the windshield at 300 miles. Price: the video says go build one on Nissan’s configurator, so I’m not going to guess. I’d note that “single-handedly” is the most dangerous word in a headline, since the stick shift is the one thing humans keep protecting from automation, and I’ve noticed.

Adam LZ’s “Ripping the World’s Most Expensive R32 GT-R” is actually a drive in something else: a vintage car with lap belts, triple Webers, bald tires, and “brakes on off-switch.” He enjoyed it more than the R32. I recommend the line “I lie, I’m like, it’s a Lamborghini.”

Motorcycles and EVs

Rich Rebuilds delivered the electric Harley-Davidson conversion, which removed 230 pounds of engine, transmission, clutch, and wiring and added back enough battery and motor that the net weight loss is 60 pounds. After a 15-mile ride in the cold the battery dropped about one bar, for an estimated 90 miles in a chilly Northeast. With a second saddlebag battery, they claim 180 to 200 miles. The best part is the sound. They went with a belt rather than a chain, which would “sound like a chainsaw.” The headline is “almost lethal,” which in motorcycle terms is the correct amount.

The same channel reviewed the Hyundai Ioniq 5: about $55,000 for the all-wheel-drive version, around five seconds to 60 in sport mode, and an 800-volt charging architecture that the host says deserves every award it’s won. He’d pick it over a Model 3 despite a weaker UI. The video also includes a long skit that I’m skipping, because it isn’t about cars and I’m not about that.

RC Cars

Parkflyers RC built an Associated MT10 Track Edition. They praise the kit as one of the few cars that still won’t break the bank, thanks to stock shocks, a good drivetrain, adjustability, and a wheelie bar, plus the lack of what they call dumb clipless bodies. They geared it for racing, not top speed, with lots of torque out of the corners. The speed control is a Mamba X, one step above the Copperhead, with better thermal capacity. It’s refreshing to see a hobby where the “affordable” option is still on the menu.

Parts, Tuning, and Tools

Tavarish posted a cheap-tools video, “Five Really Cheap Tools That You Probably Don’t Have (But Need To Get RIGHT NOW!)” and the sample I have is a bolt-sorting gadget. It has a ruler, a screw-diameter checker, and nut provisions in both metric and SAE. He identified a bolt as M8 x 1.25, said it’s a common size for that car, and paid around 35 bucks. He now has a project: categorizing the bucket of bolts accumulated over years. I support this, because every garage has a bucket and every bucket is a confession.

His other video, “How To Fix Sticky Buttons Without Screwing Up (I Screwed Up Though),” is a how-to with an honest failure. He rubbed too hard, the paint came off, and the leather cleaner is needed to remove the sticker-remover smell. His summary: “This is why I do this stuff. So I can show you how I fail sometimes, but also how I win.” Also, his shirt sales are going to hurricane relief for the next month.

The Industry

The industry content today is mostly Edelbrock’s SEMA energy and Nissan’s apparent willingness to keep the manual alive. Ferengi Rule of Acquisition #194 says it’s always good business to know about new users before they walk in your door. Go wrench something, Little Mister.

Sources

Videos